AWT Announces SmartSpeed -- Shipping Industry's First Variable Speed Routing Service Improves Fuel Efficiency

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SMM Hamburg Stand B7.309 – Applied Weather Technology, Inc. (AWT), a StormGeo company and leading provider of fleet optimization services and onboard voyage management software, today announced AWT SmartSpeed™, believed to be the first route advisory service to use advanced optimization to set both the optimum route and optimum speed for each segment of a voyage with daily updates.

AWT SmartSpeed combines vessel specifications and voyage details with AWT's vast database of nearly 20 years' weather and oceanographic information, to calculate optimum speed settings across an entire voyage. This allows operators and captains to improve the performance of their vessels and burn less fuel. AWT SmartSpeed is suited for anyone operating a vessel that is affected by weather conditions who needs to ensure safe and efficient passage and where the speed can be varied.

"Because AWT routes 50,000 ship voyages per year, we have access to millions of speed and consumption records in all types of weather. This gives us a unique ability to calculate a vessel's consumption and the effects of weather," said George Schlinkert, vice president of ship route advisory services at AWT. "To provide variable speed and variable route optimization has been the goal of ship routing for years, but only today, with massive computing power, is this made possible."

According to Haydn Jones, AWT CEO who heads the shipping business line of StormGeo, "AWT has reinvented weather routing with the introduction of AWT SmartSpeed. Its advanced computations provide a proactive service that helps shore and ship personnel to control the largest cost element on most voyages—fuel."

Prior to a voyage, AWT supplies shore-based ship operators with a pre-voyage plan for each segment of the voyage, the operator can then send this information to the ship. During a voyage, users are provided with the tools to proactively minimize fuel costs, achieve on-time arrival and actively monitor daily fuel consumption. When the voyage is completed, AWT Voyage Reports allow users to monitor compliance with the speed orders to the ships. On a monthly or quarterly basis a return on investment (ROI) analysis is provided to document fuel savings. 

"With IMO and governmental requirements such as Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plans (SEEMP), and with stricter Emission Control Areas (ECA) zones in 2015, we believe AWT SmartSpeed provides a timely solution to assist compliance, enable improved fuel efficiency and control costs," said Jones.

For more information about AWT SmartSpeed click here or go to http://www.awtworldwide.com/routing-services/smartspeed.asp.

About AWT

AWT (awtworldwide.com), a StormGeo Company, is a leading provider of shore-based ship route advisory services, onboard voyage management systems and fleet management systems. Its award winning products and services are designed to help ship owners, charterers, operators, fleet managers and captains identify the safest, most time-efficient or fuel-efficient routes for their fleets. Its products include the BVS onboard voyage management system and the shore-based Fleet Decision Support System (Fleet DSS). AWT routes more than 50,000 ship voyages per year and is staffed by world-renowned experts in ship routing, meteorology, IT, and maritime science, as well as former ship captains. AWT is headquartered in California's Silicon Valley, with worldwide offices in UK, Germany, New York, New Jersey, Stockholm, Japan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Korea. AWT is the Shipping Business line of the StormGeo Group. The StormGeo Group is headquartered in Bergen, Norway and operates out of 22 offices in 14 countries. More information is available at the AWT website or by calling +1.408.731.8600.

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SOURCE AWT